Suicide prevention, learning and support strategy 2021-2026

Our vision is to become a Trust with a just and learning culture where preventing and learning from suicide is at the heart of our work, and where suicide and suicidal feelings are understood as a human response to distress that deserves attention and a compassionate response. Everyone in BEH has something to contribute to this work and you are all encouraged to get involved in our work to prevent suicide and to learn and support those affected by suicide and suicidal thoughts.

Please read our new ‘Suicide prevention, learning and support strategy 2021-2026’ and let’s get talking!

Our ambition is to reduce suicides among people under our care to zero and to significantly reduce suicide in the broader community. We know that it is not only our service users who are affected by suicide, many of our staff will be affected by suicide in their personal lives too, and we recognise that suicide prevention, learning and support are all interconnected and that we will only achieve better outcomes by focussing on learning from suicide and supporting each other.

The new strategy has been co-produced by a working group including staff across BEH, partner organisations and bereaved carers and people with personal experience of suicidal thoughts and attempts. It looks what our data and lived experience is telling us about suicide, including the impact of COVID-19, and identifies the main drivers in reducing suicides by people under our care.